This invention relates to a protective helmet and, in particular, safety apparatus for mounting upon such a helmet.
In many hazardous occupations, the people involved are required to wear protective helmets designed to prevent or lessen the danger of head injuries caused by falling objects or the like. One such occupation is that of a fire fighter or fireman who must on occasion enter smoke-filled buildings to either battle a fire or conduct rescue operations. It is essential in this type of environment that the fire fighter have some type of illumination to enable him to see and be seen in this low-visibility environment. Although helmets, such as those worn by miners, have been equipped for quite some time with lamps, these lamps are invaribly mounted upon the front of the helmet with the beam being directed forwardly. To change the beam direction, the wearer must move his head towards the target area. This, of course, places a severe limitation on the wearer in that the position of the head dictates where the eyes will focus thereby depriving the eyes of their mobility and normal quick response.
In the case of a fire fighter who is forced to find his way through a smoke-filled building or the like, it may often times be important that he have illumination in more than one direction. For example, he may wish to clearly see the floor area immediately ahead of him in order to avoid all types of hazards while at the same time being able to search beyond in a forwardly direction. Similarly, he may want to be able to scan a light in the forward direction while still providing rearwardly-directed illumination for people who are following him. Clearly, a single lamp mounted on the front of the helmet cannot provide these valuable safety-related functions.
Beyond providing a convenient place for mounting illumination equipment, the protective helmet also affords an ideal place to mount, store and/or carry many different types of articles. Firemen, for example, generally carry a number of wedges on their person which are used to hold doors open. Often times, if not wedged, a door will be forced shut thus trapping the fireman in a burning or smoke-filled building. It is therefore important that these wedges be carried in a readily available place so that they can be put into operation quickly when needed. The protective helmet has been found to be an ideal place for such storage. However, securing the wedges to the helmet has long been a problem in the art.